Henry Cuffe
| Henry Cuffe | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1563 |
| Died | 13 March 1601 (aged 37–38) |
| Cause of death | Execution |
Sir Henry Cuffe (1563 – 13 March 1601) was an English author and politician, executed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, for treason.
Born in 1563 at Hinton St George, Somerset, he was the youngest son of Robert Cuffe of Donyatt in that county. Of the same family, although the relationship does not seem to have been definitely settled, was Hugh Cuffe, who in 1598 was granted large estates in the county of Cork, and whose grandson Maurice wrote an account of the defence of Ballyalley Castle, co. Clare, when besieged in the rebellion of 1641. Maurice Cuffe's journal was printed by the Camden Society in 1841, and the writer's grandnephew John was created Baron Desart in the Irish peerage in 1733 (the first baron's grandson, Otway Cuffe, became viscount in 1781, and Earl of Desart in 1793, and these titles are still extant). To another branch of the Somerset family of Cuffe belonged Thomas Cuffe of Crych, who went to Ireland in 1641, and whose son James was knighted by Charles II and granted land in Mayo and Galway. In 1797 James Cuffe (d. 1821), in direct line of descent from this Sir James Cuffe, was made Baron Tyrawley of Ballinrobe, County Mayo.
After receiving his early education at the grammar school of Hinton St. George, Henry Cuffe was elected at the age of fifteen a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford (25 May 1578) by the interest of Lady Elizabeth Powlett of Hinton, who always showed a kindly regard for his welfare. At Oxford, Cuffe exhibited a conspicuous ability, and became a finished Greek scholar. He attracted the attention of Sir Henry Savile, who aided him in his studies, and about 1582 made the acquaintance of John Hotman, a learned French Protestant in the service of the Earl of Leicester. In 1582 and 1583 he corresponded regularly with Hotman, and some of these letters, which prove strong affection between the writers, are printed in 'Francisci et Joannis Hotomanxorum...Epistolae' (Amsterdam, 1700). Cuffe proceeded B.A. 13 June 1580, and was elected fellow of his college 30 May 1583, but a severe remark about the practical jokes which the founder of Trinity, Sir Thomas Pope, was fond of playing on his friends, led to his expulsion from the college. In 1586, Sir Henry Savile offered him a tutorship at Merton, and there Cuffe pursued his Greek studies with conspicuous success. On 20 Feb 1588/9 he graduated M.A., and after proving his capacity as a teacher of Greek by holding a lectureship at Queen's College, he was in 1590 elected Regius Professor of Greek in the university. This post he held for seven years. He addressed the queen in a Latin speech at Carfax when she visited Oxford in 1592, and was chosen junior proctor 15 April 1594. Very soon afterwards Cuffe abandoned Oxford for London, where he obtained the post of secretary to the Earl of Essex.
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